Social Capital and Smoking Behavior

In this paper, we explore one mechanism that may underlie the negative relationship between social capital and smoking: whether social capital strengthens the effect of anti-smoking regulations. We use data on smoking behaviors collected immediately before and after the implementation of smoking bans in public places in Germany in order to determine whether the impact of these bans on smoking prevalence and intensity is greater among individuals richer in social capital. We find that smoking bans reduce both smoking prevalence and intensity mainly among men and that individual social capital strengthens the effect of the bans.